1. Technical Field
This application relates to a beverage bottling plant for aseptic filling of beverage bottles with a liquid beverage filling material.
2. Background Information
A beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can possibly comprise a beverage filling machine, which is often a rotary filling machine, with a plurality of beverage filling positions, each beverage filling position having a beverage filling device for filling bottles with liquid beverage filling material. The filling devices may have an apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined volume of liquid beverage filling material into the interior of bottles to a substantially predetermined level of liquid beverage filling material.
Some beverage bottling plants may possibly comprise filling arrangements that receive a liquid beverage material from a toroidal or annular vessel, in which a supply of liquid beverage material is stored under pressure by a gas. The toroidal vessel may also be connected to at least one external reservoir or supply of liquid beverage material by a conduit or supply line. In some circumstances it may even be possible that a beverage bottling plant has two external supply reservoirs, each of which may be configured to store either the same liquid beverage product or different products. These reservoirs could possibly be connected to the toroidal or annular vessel by corresponding supply lines, conduits, or other arrangements. It is also possible that the external supply reservoirs could be in the form of simple storage tanks, or in the form of liquid beverage product mixers.
A wide variety of types of filling elements are used in filling machines in beverage bottling or container filling plants for dispensing a liquid product into bottles, cans or similar containers, including but not limited to filling processes that are carried out under counterpressure for the bottling of carbonated beverages. The apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined flow of liquid beverage filling material further comprises an apparatus that is designed to terminate the filling of the beverage bottles upon the liquid beverage filling material reaching the predetermined level in bottles. There may also be provided a conveyer arrangement that is designed to move bottles, for example, from an inspecting machine to the filling machine.
After a filling process has been completed, the filled beverage bottles are transported or conveyed to a closing machine, which is often a rotary closing machine. A revolving or rotary machine comprises a rotor, which revolves around a central, vertical machine axis. There may further be provided a conveyer arrangement configured to transfer filled bottles from the filling machine to the closing station. A transporting or conveying arrangement can utilize transport star wheels as well as linear conveyors. A closing machine closes bottles by applying a closure, such as a screw-top cap or a bottle cork, to a corresponding bottle mouth. Closed bottles are then usually conveyed to an information adding arrangement, wherein information, such as a product name or a manufacturer's information or logo, is applied to a bottle. A closing station and information adding arrangement may be connected by a corresponding conveyer arrangement. Bottles are then sorted and packaged for shipment out of the plant.
Many beverage bottling plants may also possibly comprise a rinsing arrangement or rinsing station to which new, non-return and/or even return bottles are fed, prior to being filled, by a conveyer arrangement, which can be a linear conveyor or a combination of a linear conveyor and a starwheel. Downstream of the rinsing arrangement or rinsing station, in the direction of travel, rinsed bottles are then transported to the beverage filling machine by a second conveyer arrangement that is formed, for example, by one or more starwheels that introduce bottles into the beverage filling machine.
It is a further possibility that a beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can be controlled by a central control arrangement, which could be, for example, a computerized control system that monitors and controls the operation of the various stations and mechanisms of the beverage bottling plant.
Plants for the cold aseptic bottling of a liquid in bottles or similar containers, for example for the cold aseptic bottling of heat-sensitive beverages (e.g. fruit juices) are known in a number of different realizations. The individual machines that make up a plant of this type and are arranged one after another in the manufacturing or treatment line, such as, for example, a rinser, sterilizer, filling machine and capper, are provided with housings, and specifically so that inside the plant there is a conveyor line for the containers or bottles in a sterile space which is sealed by this housing with respect to adjacent non-sterile spaces or areas, for example the atmosphere, and also to prevent the penetration of germs and bacteria.
Among other things, when a machine with a rotary construction is used, as is conventional for rinsers, sterilizers, filling machines and/or capping machines, a housing of this type generally has a plurality of transitions between a rotating or circulating portion of the housing and a stationary part of this housing, so that special seals are necessary in these areas.
Seals of this type of the prior art (WO2004/065283) are realized in the form of labyrinth or siphon seals. Each siphon seal thereby consists essentially of at least one circular, encircling gutter-like duct or annular duct that encircles the axis of rotation or revolution of the revolution of the circulating part of the housing, into which duct a circular ring shaped wall segment on an element of the siphon seal that is provided on the other part of the housing extends. At least during the filling operation, the annular duct is filled with a barrier liquid so that the at least one annular wall segment of the siphon seal is immersed to a sufficient depth in the barrier liquid, so that the gap that remains between the two elements of the respective siphon seal is tightly sealed by the barrier liquid. The barrier liquid contains a sterilizing medium and consists, for example, of distilled sterile water and contains a specified percentage of hydrogen peroxide H2O2. As a rule, the element of the siphon seal that forms the at least one annular duct is provided on the non-circulating part and the element of the siphon seal that has the annular wall segment that extends into the annular duct is provided on the circulating part of the housing at the transition in question.
To achieve the desired sealing and barrier action, the surface of the barrier fluid in the respective annular duct must not fall below a specified level. For this purpose, on the machine of the prior art there is a separate buffer reservoir for the barrier fluid associated with each siphon seal, which buffer reservoir is connected via a line with the annular duct of the siphon seal in the manner of communicating pipes. By means of an electronic control circuit with a level sensor in the buffer reservoir and a control valve in a supply line, the level of the barrier fluid is maintained at a specified level, so that the liquid level of the barrier fluid in the annular duct of the associated siphon seal will be maintained at the specified level.
Because of design and construction requirements, such siphon seals are required at different levels in a plant for cold aseptic bottling, so that in the plant of the prior art, an independent buffer reservoir with a control circuit and the associated components (sensors, control valves etc.) is necessary at least for each level, which entails a significant construction effort and expense. In the plant of the prior art, the cleaning and/or sterilization of a plurality of siphon seals is a complex and time-consuming operation.
One possible disadvantage of in some plants is that individual siphon seals are exposed to both the sterile space or area as well as to the non-sterile space or area, which means that, for example, the sealing or barrier fluid can be contaminated by factors from the non-sterile space, and/or by factors from the sterile space, e.g. by the liquid being bottled. It is likewise impossible to prevent the exposure of persons (operating personnel) to unpleasant odors or injuries that can be caused by the barrier fluid.